


Alleviate

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [52]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Fix-It, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, Sisters, Vampire Family, agency and choices!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-26
Updated: 2014-07-26
Packaged: 2018-02-10 12:14:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2024763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The aftermath of the night's attacks leading to the plans for the following night's attacks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alleviate

**Author's Note:**

> Part five, "Fire."

“I don’t wanna tell Daddy,” Danika murmurs, tucking her hair behind her ear.  “You saw how he was earlier tonight, he’d freak out about this for sure.”

“What if we don’t tell him and he finds out anyway?” Braelyn asks.  “Wouldn’t he just get pissed?”

“How’s he gonna find out?” Charlaine retorts.  “Sookie’s not gonna tell him, Sam and Luna and Lafayette aren’t gonna tell him, Eric and Pam and them aren’t gonna tell him.”

“He might still,” Braelyn defends.  “You never know.”  She idly rubs at the place on her shoulder where not twenty minutes ago there was a bullet wound and frowns.  “I feel like we should just be honest.”

“Even if it means he gets all overprotective on us?” Danika asks.

“Kiddos,” Lafayette calls out.  “Y’all’s burgers is ready.  Come get.”

“Nose goes,” Charlaine shouts, tapping her nose and prompting Danika and Braelyn to follow suit.

But it’s not like Adilyn wouldn’t have gone anyway, all things considered, so she’s up and fetching without a word, taking  a deep breath as she does and letting her attention shift to the conversations that the other groups scattered around the restaurant are having.

The vampires are talking logistics, strategy and plans and other stuff that she knows would mostly fly over her head even if she was trying to pay closer attention.  Or rather, Eric and Nora and Pam and Tara are talking logistics and stuff while Jessica and Willa do their damnedest to contribute and pay attention and – she’s just guessing, since she can’t read their minds, but she thinks she knows the little tics they’re showing and what they mean – try not to seem too confused by it.  (Jessica also seems to be paying more attention when Nora speaks and Willa when Tara does, but she’s not ascribing too much to that.)

Sookie, meanwhile, is telling Sam and Luna what’s going on, mostly confirming Billith’s whole anti-whatever agenda.  The conversation is a lot calmer than their thoughts all are – Sookie’s worrying about Adilyn and her sisters, just hoping they’re up to it; Luna’s worrying about her daughter and about Sam and about herself, wondering if her luck has run out yet; Sam’s worrying about much the same, hoping none of it goes wrong because he’s not sure what he’d do if any of the possible disasters came to pass – but then again, she figures that’s just how it’s gonna be until this all gets sorted out for good.

Maybe that’s just how it is in general.  That’s, like, her great curse or something.  She’s always gonna be left trying to reconcile what someone’s thinking and what they’re doing and dealing with that – that _disparity_ or something. 

“What’s on your mind, fairy princess?” Lafayette drawls, leaning forward on the bar as he sees Adilyn approach.  There’s a tray with four burger-and-fries dinners set off to the side, but given the look on the girl’s face, there are other things to worry about.

Adilyn flops on a barstool.  She’s not really the best at talking about her feelings yet, given that usually she doesn’t have to.  “Isn’t it weird how stuff just sorta… goes on?” she mumbles.

Lafayette fixes her with a look.  “Stuff like…”

“I mean, not even an hour ago my sisters were bleedin’ out or… whatever,” she says, “and now they’re sittin’ there all fine and fixed up and arguin’ about whether or not our daddy even needs to know they almost died.”

“If I know Sheriff Andy, he’d wanna know,” Lafayette declares.  He sets about fixing himself a drink, continuing to talk to her over his shoulder.  “You don’t gotta tell him all the details he wouldn’t understand –”

“That’s most of ‘em,” Adilyn points out. “And I swear I heard him think something about vampire blood once.” She mentions it and then promptly both sees Lafayette’s eyebrow raise and hears him think something similar, so her next question is, “That’s not gonna be a thing, right? I mean just ‘cause we had some we’re not gonna wind up all…” She wrinkles her nose up, searches for the word, and when she finds it, it comes out sounding sort of hesitant, like she doesn’t want to offend. “Junkies?”

“Sorta zero to sixty, there,” he observes dryly, sipping at his improvised cocktail before adding another bit of gin to it. “None of y’all is actin’ weird, is you?”

Adilyn glances at her sisters, still animatedly debating the issue at hand, then back to Lafayette. “Not really,” she says. “I mean, I feel okay, but I, I didn’t have as much as they did, did I?”

Lafayette shakes his head. “Is that really what you’s worrying about?”

Adilyn frowns, steals a fry off of one of the plates and munches it thoughtfully. “I just don’t think I’m ready to act like nothin’ weird happened yet,” she declares.

“You mean, like everyone else is doin’?” he prompts.

“Yeah,” she nods. “Can I have one of whatever you’re drinkin’? It looks pretty.”

“You know how drinkin’ ages work?” he asks.

“Yeah,” she repeats.

“Well, I ain’t gonna pull the infant card on you,” he begins, “but how old has you and your daddy decided you is?”

“About eighteen,” she sighs. “I get the point. Can I have a Coke, then?”

“That’s better,” he says. “’Sides, when the four of you reaches your twenty-first, it ain’t gonna be some on-the-spot nonsense cocktail you drinks first.”

“Thanks for talkin’, Lala,” Adilyn smiles, sliding off the barstool and reaching for the tray of burgers. “I feel better.”

“Anytime, princess,” Lafayette declares, waving her off.

 

* * *

 

The group reconvenes once the fairy girls have all eaten and decided on a course of action amongst themselves – they’ll tell their father everything, but not yet, which seems a fair enough compromise – and then it’s battle strategies and the accompanying philosophy behind them until it’s nearly sunrise. Sookie drives the girls home, stopping just short of tucking them in; Sam sends Lafayette home and does the cleanup all himself while Luna naps in his office; the vampires pile into their van – weapons tucked into the trunk – and speed the whole way home in silence.

The babies are all exhausted from the events of the evening, to say nothing of their own respective blood loss – not enough that it’s detrimental, of course, but still more than either Tara or Willa is used to – and it’s something of a miracle that all of them manage to make it downstairs and into bed without any assistance. (Pam is slightly more alert but rather emotionally done with everything, so she’s no great help either.)

Eric and Nora don’t say anything until they’re done stripping, until they’ve sponged the blood from their skin and climbed into bed, but given that Nora turns on her side and curls up almost into a ball immediately, Eric just has to let his voice drop and ask: “Are you going to be all right?”

“I know what we need to do,” she says. “I’m sure as fuck not going to let myself be the thing that stops it. I’ll make do.”

“Are you sure?” he presses, because that’s his job.

“Sure as I’m going to be.”


End file.
